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Well after months and months of lessons and home work I finally decided it was time to face the music and take Dustry to his first competition to see how he reacted! Very local to me is a lovely venue called Cholderton Equestrian Centre and they run unaff’ and affiliated dressage and showjumping. I entered D for a walk and trot test twice (once HC) I thought maybe plaiting him up might excite him and remind him of his racing days but he didn’t bat an eyelid, he just munched on his hay net. Used to travelling regularly for his…

Over the last few weeks we have been working in our lessons on getting Dustry to reach down and stretch when he goes over trot poles. This is helping him to use his back and also become more active behind in order to make the distance, and clean foot falls between the poles. Dustry’s natural reaction when off balance or when something  breaks his concentration is to revert to his racing habits and invert his neck and hollow. Lots of round, stretchy pole work should help to eliminate this reaction when we start to jump, and produce a nice round bascule. In…

Yesterday Soap had to be taken to the Equine Hospital in Lambourne. He had pulled a shoe off in the field, just days after being shod on Monday and despite wearing his customary over reach boots. Somehow when he pulled the shoe off a nail from the shoe managed to pierce his tendon sheath and make a hole in the tendon, the dirty nail infected the tendon wound and the tendon sheath. The vet from the hospital phoned me and explained that she had bad news, she very clearly explained the injury, and that if I chose to try and…

Soap received his first treatment for what we are diagnosing as ‘Navicular’ caused by bony damage/arthritis on August 1st. I can’t afford to have an MRI scan done, so we are going by the evidence we can see from the x-rays which points to some bony changes on the outside of his near fore’s Navicular bone. He stood like a lamb for an hour whilst he was attached to a Tildren drip, and once the drip was finished he had a steroid and HA injection into the hoof joint. The full effect of this should be evident in 4 weeks, but already…

It suddenly dawned on me the other day as I was booting Dustry up to ride that the brushing boots I was using were about 4th generation hand me downs! After a bit more thought I realised that they were in fact the original Woof Wear boots that came with my very first pony over 20 years ago! Credit has to go to Woof Wear for making such robust and hard wearing boots, and I haven’t thrown them away because they are still in perfect condition so they have gone into the tack shed as spares. Taking advantage of their Facebook discount code…

Soap has now been enjoying his R&R for several weeks whilst wearing his fancy new shock absorber rubber pads. These pads will last about 2 years and are designed to help reduce concussion which should make him more comfortable. He is much happier on his affected near fore now, sound in walk, but still a little ‘footy’ in trot on the hard ground. Next week he is going to have his first treatment of Tildren into the off fore to help medicate the bony changes to the outside of that foot. I am hoping that once this starts to take affect he can begin to…

Yesterday I took Dustry for his weekly lesson. Due to prepping for Hickstead with Soap taking priority he has missed his last 2 lessons and has been lounging in the field un-ridden for 2 weeks. He’s such a little pro because I schooled him the day before, and then off we went for our lesson, Dustry keen to get on the lorry and cool as a cucumber. Our arena at home is fairly deep in the dry weather and with its slope it makes it hard to really get going with canter work on a baby horse. It’s really nice…

This week I had been manically rushing about trying to organise the loan, purchase, and delivery of all the ‘must have’ showing items we needed for our ROR Championships on Sunday. I bought the last remaining parts for Soap’s showing bridle, and with my eBay headpiece and a set of reins it was looking really good. On a tip off by a friend for showing shirts I bought some cheap Tesco school uniform shirts and chucked them in the washing machine with some yellow dusters, they came out looking fab, new pale yellow show shirts, check! Then when I went to the field to…

The ROR Championships are fast approaching, and it’s time for the ultimate make over ‘eventer to showing rider’ in under a fortnight! eBay has been fantastic for bargains and so far I’ve bought a 2nd hand green and yellow spotted tie £2.54 (yet to arrive) and a lovely sparkly green brownband £12.99, which Soap tried on today!!! Seeing as we are entering the arena of professional turn-out I had a little attempt at plaiting with thread tonight. Being an eventer at heart I’ve only ever plaited with bands so in need of some serious ‘how to be a proper horsewoman and not…

…thumb to page 10 where you will find a quote from yours truly in support of my instructor Amanda Brewer! Amanda and her husband Dave provide breaking, schooling, instruction, and rehab livery all under one roof at Total Training Equine in Childrey, Oxford. They both do a fantastic job, and thanks to Amanda’s constant help, and Dave’s insight over the last few years I have become slightly evangelical in my support of them both! If you have a difficult horse, want to improve your performance, or need help starting your next competition horse then give A and D a call they would be more than happy to…